They've got their own way: The 5 best Duran Duran video parodies

Happy Duran Duran Appreciation Day, everyone! (Yes, it’s a real holiday. It means so much to us, like a birthday or a pretty view.) The MTV pioneers have inspired several artists to shoot their own small-screen tributes, so we’ve compiled a primer of some of the best. You’ll have a huge cherry ice cream smile on your face after watching these genius Duran Duran parodies.

5. Fountains of Wayne, “Mexican Wine”

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The little-seen follow-up to “Stacy’s Mom” features the powerpoppers living it up on an Antiguan yacht, “Rio”-style. Sure, Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger don’t quite fill out those pastel linen suits like Simon Le Bon and John Taylor do. But, still, we suppose it’s very nice.

4. Stinky Chat, “Rio”

We don’t know who these totally awesome “Stinky Chat” people are, but they probably had a fraction of a fraction of Fountains of Wayne’s video budget, and they did almost as great a job spoofing Duran’s yacht-pop classic. We raise a frothy neon yellow cocktail to them.

3. Sugar Ray, “When It’s Over”

The frat-rockers get some of the details wrong in this parody of Duran’s “Is There Something I Should Know?” There aren’t two keytar-players in Duran Duran, for one (did Nick Rhodes ever actually play a keytar???), and the Patrick Nagel-knockoff artwork in the background is from the wrong era. (Also, those girls in the kabuki makeup and Glad-bag dresses look like they wandered in from the set of A Flock of Seagulls’ “I Ran” video.) But … Mark McGrath’s preening is so on point, we have to give him props. Apparently the something we all needed to know was McGrath is a closeted, hard-core Duranie.

2. The Dandy Warhols, “You Were the Last High”

The Dandys’ excellently synthy but woefully misunderstood fourth album, Welcome to the Monkey House, was co-produced by Nick Rhodes (along with David Bowie cohort Tony Visconti), so what better way to repay the favor than by lovingly re-creating Duran’s “Planet Earth” video? These new New Romantics were looking for the TV sound, and they obviously found it.

1. Hedley, “Never Too Late”

Sorry, Stinky Chat, but this popular Canadian pop-rock band (fronted by Canadian Idol top-three finalist Jacob Hoggard) totally one-upped you with this painstaking, scene-by-scene “Rio” re-creation. No detail was spared: The pink underwater telephone, the shaky champagne pour, the crab foot attack, the synchronized air-saxophone deck dancing … it’s all in there. We know Hedley are something special, and they look like they’re the best.